Laura Maersk naming marks new methanol era

Today is a banner day on Maersk’s decarbonisation path with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, in Copenhagen for the naming of the Laura Maersk, the first in a series of methanol-powered boxships Maersk has contracted yards in South Korea to build. 

Also in attendance at the Danish capital is Greg Dolan, CEO of the Methanol Institute, who commented that today’s naming ceremony serves as a demonstration that the shipping industry is embracing methanol as a sustainable fuel fit for the energy transition and positioned for the future.

The 2,100 teu Laura Maersk was built at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard. It will serve trades in the Baltic area. 

Aware of the rising demand for methanol – not just in shipping, but from other industries – Maersk has been beefing up its global access to the fuel. 

C2X, a new, independent company aiming to build, own and operate assets to produce green methanol at scale, was unveiled today. C2X is backed by A.P. Moller Holding and plans to have annual production capacity of more than 3m tonnes by 2030. It is looking at green methanol projects close to the Suez Canal in Egypt, the port of Huelva in Spain, and the US, India, and Australia.

“Replacing the existing use of fossil methanol with green methanol, and also meeting the growing demand from the use of green methanol as a fuel, requires a step change in the global production capacity of non-fossil methanol,” A.P. Moller Holding, Maersk’s investment arm, stated in a release today. 

Towards 2050, the annual demand for methanol could triple to some 300m tonnes, according to Maersk projections. 

“There is a pressing environmental requirement to scale the production of green methanol. C2X was founded to enable the energy transition in several hard-to-abate industries, including plastics, glues, textiles, and fuels. I am delighted to see the talented team who have joined C2X, and the strong interest from partners and prospective customers to support the venture’s important purpose and development,” said Robert Uggla, CEO of A.P. Moller Holding.

C2X is majority-owned by A.P. Moller Holding with A.P. Moller-Maersk as a 20% shareholder.

In related news, Amsterdam-headquartered methanol provider OCI Global, which provided fuel for the Laura Maersk’s maiden voyage from Asia to Europe, has unveiled plans to double its green methanol capacity in the US to approximately 400,000 metric tons per year. 

OCI has projected growth in the green methanol market of incremental demand of more than 6m tonnes by 2028, due to the adoption of green methanol as a shipping fuel, based on the 225 dual-fuelled methanol vessels now on order.

Maersk’s proactive stance to invest and secure global access to methanol – now widely seen as shipping’s alternative fuel for the 2020s – comes at a time when shipping is growing to realise not everyone will be able to buy the prized liquid as well as other future fuels. 

Class society DNV warned last week that to meet the anticipated demand of 17m tonnes of oil equivalent annually by 2030, the maritime sector needs to access 30-40% of the projected worldwide carbon-neutral fuel supply. 

Applauding Maersk’s industry-leading ship naming ceremony today, Andrew Craig-Bennett, Splash’s lead columnist, wrote: “Maersk is to be commended because behind this ship it has another 24 green methanol burners planned and on order. It is doing the right thing and is showing up everyone else. But for every Maersk there will be 20 owners thinking about how to dodge the new regulations once the regulations are promulgated.”